Blog #2

Teaching In The 21st Century: Kevin Roberts:
According to Kevin Roberts video Teaching in the 21st Century he believes that it would involve students being able to reach their work anywhere anytime and through every technological port available, such as Google, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. But he also wants them to understand the material, analyze it, communicate and collaborate with information retrieved. The main question he asks is if curriculum should be based off of facts and content or skill? I agree that it be a combination both.

I completely agree with notion that teaching in the 21st century would strongly involve and encourage almost entire use of technology as a greater tool inside and outside of the classrooms. As an educator I think it would be an asset to everyone in the classroom; teachers, students and even parents. It gives everyone alternative ways to understand and interpret material. I think it makes the overall classroom a better learning environment for everyone. It would give teachers a way to move into the technological world that our society is moving toward. For students, it allows them to see another aspect of how the technology they are so accustomed to presents another aide to them. They can see that it can be used not just for entertainment, but also learning. For parents it is simply another way to become involved in their child's education.

I agree with Kevin Robert's who argues that teachers in the 21st century must teach quite differently than teachers of the 20th century. Some examples of this would be incorporating technology into the classroom. Teachers can use Facebook, Twitter and a class blog to communicate with their students outside of the classroom and they can use Moodle to upload homework and classwork assignments. I think new improvements to the ways of the classroom strongly involve the use of technology.

Group Project:
I believe in the “Mr. Dancealot” video, it clearly shows that technology is not always the best choice for teaching. Teaching dancing just through use of smartboards and powerpoint presentations isn’t what will have students learn how to dance. An easy example of how this didn’t work is the amount (about half the class) of students that were asleep in the lecture. Certain subjects require teaching in different ways. The way this teacher chose to teach may have been ok in learning the history of dance, but not learning how to dance. The little physical instruction the professor did give was behind a desk where the students couldn’t see anything. This highlights the inappropriate setting in which the class was held. Most students are hands-on learners so a video showing them what to do wouldn't be as effective as an in class instructor.

Eric:
According to Vicki Davis’ video “Harness your student’s digital smarts”, she taught her students by allowing them to teach themselves and to collaborate with one another and teach others in the classroom. It helps have students think independently and give them the drive to succeed. When she talks about empowering of the students, she is talking about the feeling of when a student figures something out on their own and they feel like they can take on the world and learn anything and everything. When talking about the subject of having students collaborate with other students in the world, I believe generally that is a good idea, introduces students to new cultures and ideas. However, specifically talking about students collaborate with other students in the world, it determines on the subject to see if it is a good idea or not, some subjects it is wonderful, other subjects it is not exactly necessary, so generally good idea, specifically it depends. With the internet, it does not matter if one is in a rural area or not, everyone is connected. With the internet everyone lives in the same neighborhood and can casually skip on over to your blog or twitter or even youtube video. If you give the student the proper tools and with a little push, the student can harness their own digital smarts and impress and teach even the most advanced of educators.

Ronald:
The Networked Student was a true story about a 21st century high school student. The story revolved around a certain class he was taking and the format in which it was being taught. The format was called Connectivism, which is based on learning from various connections from people mostly from the internet / social media. The student met with the class three times a week and two other times via the internet. The class centered mostly on the student going out and finding reputable connections to strengthen his knowledge on the subject matter. These reputable connections included scholarly articles, college level podcasts of lectures in his subject area, and other information compiled by current and former students. The teacher of his class was mostly there to help the students along with the process when they got stuck, not for lecture purposes.

There are several things I like about this kind of education. The first thing is the acquisition of research skills. By having to search for connections in his subject area he will gain a lot of experience in research. Having a solid foundation in research is important in many factions of life, not only in higher education but future careers as well. Another positive point about this article is the use of technology. The class is based on technology and acquiring this skill has advantages. One advantage is the fact of technology and research going hand in hand. Using technology in research can yield much more powerful results than not using it. Another great thing this education style uses is people connections. Part of the story included the student making a connection with a documentary filmmaker. This connection led to the filmmaker Skyping with the whole class.

There are also a few things that I didn’t care for in this educational approach. The first thing is only meeting three days a week due to holding class online for the other two days. I think on a high school level students should be in a classroom together the whole time. At the high school age students are really coming into their own on many levels and I think socialization is a very important one. Having face to face contact and having personal interactions with other students and teachers is very important. There is a big difference between sitting behind a computer and interacting with someone compared to doing it in real life. Getting along with, working with, and even joking around and having fun with other students is better in person. Another issue I had was the interaction of the teacher with the students. I don’t have a problem with the interaction as a whole, rather a few minor things. I think it is great that the teacher encourages the students to be critical thinkers and self motivators, but I feel lectures are a very important part of learning. Having the skill to listen and pick out important information from lectures is a rewarding skill to have. In most careers one will have supervisors that lecture in meeting type atmospheres. Having the discipline to be attentive and learn from those lectures may determine the quality of work one puts out. Learning these types of skills in the classroom can prepare one for situations like this. I think this goes hand in hand with the question of why a is teacher needed. Lecture skills can be provided by the teacher in addition to supporting the students in their own research / connection making.